~ So Many Interests, So Little Time

Sweet Olathe, How I Adore Thee

The McDougall Diet and I are getting along. Of course, it’s only Day Four but I haven’t read anything about the diet or found anything in the cookbook that incites me to forgo my Challenge. In two respects, the McDougall Diet and I are a match made in Food-Dom. I’m currently reading “The McDougall Program for Women” and, in it, Dr. McDougall suggest limiting exposure to pesticides. Even though DDT has been banned for decades, it’s still present in the environment and is linked to adverse effects on women’s health. This is not the first time I’ve heard this: while researching my particular health issue, I’ve found several links that suggest eating as clean and pesticide free as possible, and that includes the pesticides in use today. As optimal heath is my goal, I try to buy as much local, organically grown produce as I can. I won’t deny the produce is more expensive than conventionally grown but, as my dollars are going to beans and grains rather than meat and dairy, I have a little extra to put into the fruit and veggie budget.

In the second respect, Dr. McDougall suggests avoiding GMO’s. An article of his I’ll include at the end of this post is an interesting perspective on the GMO controversy and, while the article isn’t a scathing indictment against GMO crops, the article does recommend avoiding them, just to be on the safe side. Again, with optimal health in mind, I eschew GMO’s in all their forms. I read a statistic recently that between 80-84% of the corn crop planted this year was GMO so I believed I had to give up one of the staples of my Midwest upbringing: roasted corn on the cob. Sad, but I could buy organic frozen corn kernels for soups and salsas so all was not lost. Then I started hearing radio ads for Olathe Sweet Corn and wondered, is there a chance this corn is Non-GMO? I found an article in The Produce News that said, yes, it was. Not only that, organic sweet corn was available on request.

I didn’t request organic: rather, I purchased four ears of Olathe Sweet Corn from my nearest Sprouts Farmers’ Market. Then, since odds were they were conventionally grown, I peeled off the husk and silk and gave the ears a good soak and scrub with water and veggie wash. Then, because I’d removed the husks, I needed a husk-less roasting recipe. Enter Sassy, The Vegan Coach! She’s one of my go-to people when it comes to vegan diet questions and she didn’t let me down. Thirty minutes (the recipe said 10-15 but the ears took longer. Higher altitude?) in the oven and my family and I enjoyed buttered (or Earth-Balanced), salted, and peppered corn on the cob. It was a nice treat for my family and me. Thanks, Ringer and Son! I don’t know if Earth Balance qualifies as oil-free but I’d purchased the corn before embarking on the McDougall Challenge and I couldn’t let them go to waste, could I? 🙂

My Step-father had already absconded with his before I could snap a pic!